If a taxpayer does not pay her taxes, a government authority, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the federal government or any other revenue service of a state or local government, may levy (i.e., seize) the taxpayer's property. In some instances, the levier (used herein generally to refer to any entity that may levy property, e.g., the IRS or any other state or local entity) may levy property such as wages, retirement accounts, dividends, or other sources of income that are held by an entity other than the taxpayer. For example, the levier may levy the taxpayer's income by issuing a notice of levy (i.e., levy notice or levy) on wages to the taxpayer's employer. In this example, the employer may withhold a certain portion of the employee taxpayer's wages and remit the withheld portion to the levier to satisfy the levy.
Conventional systems for processing tax levies may be inefficient for both leviers and employers. For example, a levier, such as the IRS, may send notices of levy on income to multiple employers. An exemplary notice is IRS form 668-W(c)(DO) “Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income” which may include, among other things, an identification of a taxpayer employee on whom the levy is being imposed and a total amount due (i.e., levy amount). The levier may send a notice for each employee whose property is being levied. Moreover, the levier may send the notices in various formats and possibly from different locations. For example, the IRS may send a combination of paper notices and electronic notices from multiple regional IRS offices located throughout the United States and its territories. Thus, employers may be burdened by having to receive and process a large amount of information in different formats from different locations. This problem may be exacerbated if the employer is also required to process levies from other leviers (e.g., state and local entities).
Other factors also may cause inefficiencies for the leviers and the employers. For example, if a levier sends a notice to an employer for an employee that is no longer employed by the employer (e.g., because employment has been terminated, the employee is deceased, etc.), the employer may not have an efficient way to notify the levier that the employee no longer works at the employer. Thus, the levier may continue to send notices to the wrong employer, increasing costs for both the levier and the employer. Additionally, even if the levier properly notifies the correct employer, the employer may not have an efficient way to submit a payment to the levier to satisfy the levy.